As in the case of CD, in the case of DVD, too, there is a demand for recording apparatuses to satisfy domestic demand. Drives in accordance with different standards, such as DVD-RAM and DVD-RW, are currently in the introduction phase. Furthermore, at the present time work is under way on a so-called DVD-Streamer, abbreviated to DVD-SR. DVD-SR is intended to allow the recording and reproduction of packetized data streams, in particular also in real time.
In packetized data streams, the data are not present as a continuous stream, but rather are subdivided piece by piece into packets. Packets are formed differently in this case, depending on the area of application. Thus, two different variants are provided by the MPEG-2 Systems Standard defined in ISO/IEC 13818-1, with the program stream and the transport stream. The program stream is provided for use in applications with a low error rate and is therefore usually used for storing data streams.
Recording of packetized data streams is described in WO 00/14743 which was not published before the priority date. In this case, the packets of the incoming data stream are recorded in the form of Video Object Units (VOBU) of fixed size, a time duration which is reproduced by 12 bits being assigned to each VOBU for addressing purposes.
In order, despite the limited resolution of the time durations, to enable recording even at very low data rates, it is proposed, in the European patent application which bears the application No. 00100836 and was likewise not published before the priority date, to carry out so-called time stuffing. For this purpose, stuffing packets are provided at the end of a VOBU, which stuffing packets merely contain filling data, in particular zeros, in addition to a time stamp. Equally, VOBUs may also contain, in addition to a time stamp, exclusively filling data and no data packets whatsoever. This so-called stuffing method has the disadvantage, however, that an unnecessarily large amount of storage space is taken up.